Customer says Comcast left him on hold for more than 3 hours

NEW YORK — Viral recordings of Comcast customer service snafus are becoming a highly watched mini-series.

Among the most recent: A video showing a Chicago photographer on hold for more than 3 hours trying to cancel his service, only to be told in a separate call that the office that handles disconnects was closed for the day.

Aaron Spain’s video on You Tube has 1.4 million views in the three days since it was posted.

In the video, Spain holds up the phone to show the original call passing the 3 hour and 25 minute mark. “That’s how long I’ve been on hold, and they’re closed,” he said. “I’m pissed.”

Spain said he was able to cancel the service — in just 17 minutes — when he called back the next day. He said once the video went viral, a Comcast executive called him to apologize. “It seemed genuine,” Spain said.

“Under no circumstances is this the experience we want our customers to have,” said a Comcast spokesperson. “Our goal is to be respectful of our customers’ time and fix any issues the first time. We take this very seriously.”

Last week Tim Davis, another unhappy Comcast customer. posted a recording of his battles to get an improper charge from a service call dropped from his bill. He was told in the complaining call that the only way to have the charge removed was to have a recording of someone at Comcast telling him that there would be no charge to fix the problem.

He called the bluff, playing back a tape of the earlier customer service representative assuring him there would be no charge, and got the charge dropped. The incident was reported by The Washington Post. The video has about 770,000 views.

Last month, Ryan Block, a former editor of Endgadget, and his wife Veronica Belmont, posted a recording of an abusive Comcast customer service representative who refused to cancel their service despite repeated requests to do so. There are more than 500,000 views of the various YouTube postings of his call.

Comcast issued statements apologizing for both the Davis and Block-Belmont calls.

“This is not the type of experience we want our customers to have. We have spoken with the customer and apologized to him,” said Comcast about Davis’ video.